IDOT alters Illiana Expressway plan

PEOTONE — The Illinois Department of Transportation Tuesday unveiled a slightly revised Illiana Expressway plan and formally proposed that it be a tollway. IDOT made a few changes to the 47-mile route that will stretch from Interstate 55 in Wilmington to Interstate 65 in Indiana.

Two more potential interchanges have been added, that would bring the total number of interchanges along the Illiana to eight in Illinois and three in Indiana. The announcement was made ta public meeting at Peotone High School.

Twelve more local roads, seven in Illinois and five in Indiana, will be open and won't dead end at the highway under the revised plan. And the planned route also has shifted south in the Beecher area to avoid splitting farmland.The changes were made after IDOT met with landowners, emergency responders, school district officials and local elected officials.

Emergency responders worried there was no interchange on a 16-mile stretch of the Illiana Expressway between Illinois 45 and 53, so an interchange was added at Wilton Center.